


War

by gallifreyanlibertea



Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: Black Friday, M/M, Omegaverse, Single Parent Arthur
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-25
Updated: 2017-11-25
Packaged: 2019-02-06 19:37:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,064
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12824610
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gallifreyanlibertea/pseuds/gallifreyanlibertea
Summary: Arthur encounters an obstacle while Black Friday Shopping that he is determined to overcome.





	War

**Author's Note:**

> idk I just wanted to see an angry Black Friday Shopper! Arthur, it's a guilty pleasure of mine

It was men like this one that made Arthur want to stay at home on Black Friday.

“I was here first, you know!”

The alpha raised a brow, crossing those larger-than-Arthur’s  _oh god he could easily just strangle me to death if he tried, look at those biceps!_  arms. “Yeah, well, if you wanna fight me for it, feel free, old man.”

Who was he calling old man?

“If you have any honour at all-!” Arthur changed his approach upon realizing that the man was likely still in college, and most probably a frat boy- “My son really wants this game, it’s all he wants for Christmas  _and_  his birthday combined!”

“Then get it for him around Christmastime.” The alpha said with a shrug, hand reaching for the game.

Arthur threw himself in front of the display, eliciting an incredulous look from the blue eyes behind the frames of the stranger’s glasses. 

See, Arthur Kirkland might have been an omega, he might’ve been a foot shorter, he might’ve been significantly less-built, and he’d  _definitely_  be the first to crumple in a fight-

But he hadn’t been in a good mood that day, it was  _midnight_ , and this was war.

“Look here, er- what’s your name?”

The alpha sighed. “Alfred.”

“Look here, _Alfred,_ ” Arthur didn’t quite know how he expected to get out of this.

This man didn’t seem to react in the slightest when Arthur had mentioned his kid, and most people did! This  _Alfred_ fellow was heartless, yet the thought of Arthur’s little Peter huddled up at home, awaiting his father’s return with a hopeful grin on his face- it was enough to keep Arthur going.

Even if Arthur’s return would be punctuated with several bruises on his skin. 

“Don’t you feel a tad ashamed that you’d want the same game as a ten-year-old?”

Alfred bristled at that, “I- I didn’t come here to be judged!”

Oh dear. Time for a new approach. “Have a heart, lad, will you? My boy wrote a letter to Santa Claus telling him this is the only thing he’d want for years to come. You wouldn’t want to stand in the way of his happiness, would you?”

Alfred saw straight through the lie. “I thought you said your kid was ten, what’s he doing still believing in Santa?”

Arthur sputtered.

He really never was the best at lying. Nor was he very good at bargaining either, and Alfred seemed to sense that. Despite the fact that it was now bordering on one o’clock in the morning, the alpha seemed to be enjoying himself.

He had a slight smile playing on his lips, hands on his hips, eyebrow cocked.

Arthur cleared his throat. “Fine, you can have it.”

Alfred furrowed his brows, “What? No fight? That easy?”

Arthur would look elsewhere, he decided. He wouldn’t want to entertain Alfred any further, and besides, there were other deals he was likely losing in the time it took him to attempt to win the game from the alpha.

Arthur stepped away, arms folded as Alfred plucked the game from its shelf cautiously. The last in stock.

“You’re not going to sic your husband on me or anything?”

“That would be a good idea if I had a husband,” Arthur grumbled in response, shuffling to his shopping cart with a huff.

Wait.

There it was- yes, Arthur was most definitely sure of it. He had turned to find Alfred eyes lingering on his ass.

Well, of course, he’d be staring, he was a  _college boy_. God knew Arthur had been one himself. Arthur found himself turning an embarrassed shade of pink at the attention, and the idiot alpha made no move to hide his slight interest.

He did, however, plop the game into his basket hastily after he’d enjoyed his view, swivelling his cart with a final, mocking salute in Arthur’s direction before he made his way further into the electronics aisle.

Arthur paused. He then braced himself, “Wait, um, Alfred!”

Alfred turned with a humoured laugh. “Okay, so this is happening, you’re gonna put up a fight.”

“I saw you checking me out.”

That seemed to be quite the abrupt halt to Alfred’s carefree façade. He turned an equally bright shade of red, as any other accused man would.

He hadn’t expected that, had he? Hah! No one expected a man like Arthur to be so bold. Well, no one really tended to voice such observations aloud, and neither did Arthur, but the situation called for it and the satisfaction of seeing that confidence shatter was enough to almost bring a smirk onto Arthur’s lips.

_Almost._  Arthur maintained his calm. “I’ll let you take me out on a date.”

“You-” Alfred seemed bewildered by this, and on any other day, Arthur would be too.

However, _it was one o’clock in the morning_  and the prospect of Arthur’s bed was becoming increasingly welcoming by the second; not to mention, Arthur Kirkland never, ever, not once, not ever, lost.

“You’d  _sell yourself_  for your son?”

“It would only be a single, innocent date.” Arthur protested. “Do we have a deal?”

“You’re crazy.” Was Alfred’s response. He paused, Arthur stared, and Alfred groaned. “God, you’re the craziest man I’ve ever met.”

He reached into his basket and Arthur grinned in triumph.

Arthur Kirkland never lost.

“Thank you very much.” Arthur fought down a Disney-villain-esque laugh as the game was pressed into his hands.

Oh yeah, Arthur’s still got it. 

Peter would be so pleased as well, to see the video game he’d been begging his father for months to get him. Arthur had refrained from doing so until he’d thoroughly investigated the game, of course, and despite it being a bit violent, he’d decided it would do no harm, and here he was.

Arthur took a nice long look at the fruit of his labour, chest swollen with pride.

… Hold on.

He squinted, scanning the packaging as Alfred regarded him with curiosity.

“You okay, omega?”

“Shit.” Arthur was a bit too late in biting the curse back from his lips.

This was not the game Peter had wanted.

In fact, Arthur could see it now as he glanced up to look behind the confused alpha before him. There it was, sitting on a shelf in full stock, yes,  _that_ was the game Arthur had spent countless nights researching.

One would think he’d remember the title, then.

He found himself smiling abashedly, “God, I’m sorry, Alfred, I’ve put you through a lot tonight, haven’t I?”

Alfred narrowed his eyes. “Yeah?”

“I don’t know what came over me.” Arthur said, “You deserve the game. For your trouble, that is.”

“Decided the date wasn’t worth it, huh?”

Oh.

Arthur found himself in quite the pickle, but he doubted it really meant anything. An alpha like Alfred had to have been confident enough to withstand such a thing, even if it wasn’t what Arthur had truly meant.

Besides, it’s not like Arthur was a looker… nor was he was in his twenties. Alfred would survive.

So Arthur shrugged and Alfred retrieved his game, steering his cart back into the electronics aisle.

Shit. “Wait, Alfred!”

Alfred paused yet again, and if he wasn’t annoyed already, he would be if Arthur kept this up.

See, all that time, he hadn’t looked at Peter’s game long enough to notice that it sat on a high shelf. The shelf was a bit too tall for Arthur’s liking, and he supposed he should’ve blamed it on the fact that he never listened to his mum when she’d forced him to drink that weird milk mixture that she swore up, down, left and right would make him grow a couple more inches-

“Alphas like nice and tall omegas.” She’d said, “That way, you won’t gain weight so fast, dear, now drink up.”

Needless to say, Arthur hadn’t drunk up.

And it seemed his mother was right. Alphas didn’t really like short omegas because this one turned to look at him with near murderous eyes.

“Take it or leave it, dude, I have other things to do.”

That was not very nice. Arthur crossed his arms, “I was just wondering if you could help me get that game up on the shelf, but if you’re going to pitch a fit about it-”

Arthur bit back his words. It had been a while before he’d spoken to anything other than a bratty ten-year-old Peter, much less an attractive alpha like-

No, not attractive,  _no_. If Arthur thought about it too much, he’d blank out completely. There was no way he was any better at talking to someone when they were so beautiful.

Was it the flickering store light? The slightly annoyed, frankly  _just a teeny bit sexy_  look on that face?

Dear God, it had to be the time. Arthur’s thoughts became shameless after midnight, he just hadn’t stayed up that late in so long.

Arthur sighed. “There’s no one else around here and I can’t reach the shelf.”

Alfred’s lips twitched into a polite smile. “No problemo.”

Suddenly, it was very  _problemo_  indeed, seeing as the look on that face had slowly, before Arthur’s very eyes, morphed into something that told Arthur his secret hadn’t been kept well enough. Alfred’s smile was sly.

“So this is the game your son really wanted, right?”

Arthur’s silence was enough of a reply to send Alfred laughing, reaching for the game as Arthur attempted to fight away the red in his cheeks.

“To think I was going to sleep in tonight.” Alfred said, “And miss all of this.”

“It’s human nature to make mistakes!” Arthur felt the need to explain himself as he snatched the game out of Alfred’s hand, shoving it into his cart.

“It’s okay, I get it. Forgetfulness comes with age, after all.”

Imbecile!  _The cheek!_  Arthur opened his mouth to protest, to put this man-child in his place, who did he think he was to speak to Arthur like that?

No, Arthur Kirkland did not tolerate disobedience of any kind in the ten years of his fatherhood, so he would not be tolerating this.

“Enjoy your twenties, Alfred, because with a college-frat-boy-lifestyle like yours, I’m guessing, these looks of yours will be the first to go.”

And Arthur had planned an exit with a flourish.

He wasn’t quite a Sherlock Holmes of any sort, no, it was easy to tell Alfred was the partying type. His basket was chock-full of cheap alcohol, and if Arthur squinted he was sure he’d see a stray box of condoms, and the wide-eyed look on the alpha’s face was enough to confirm that Arthur had hit it right on the mark anyway.

Or, at least, that’s what he thought.

“My looks, huh?” Alfred said instead, “You think I’ve got looks?”

Arthur had to leave immediately.

God, he was too old for this. Arthur scoffed in reply, turning to maneuver his cart into the board-game aisle for something fun to have in the house in case he wanted to reinstate Family Game Night. Not because he was afraid he’d run his mouth and be even more of an idiot than he was previously, definitely not.

Arthur had even attempted to quicken his pace rather embarrassingly at the sound of Alfred calling for his attention behind him.

“Slow down, old man, I’ve got a new deal!”

Arthur stopped in his tracks, turning to find that Alfred had made his way right behind him, lips spread in a boyish grin.

“You tell me your name, and in return, I’ll give you a single, innocent date.”

“There’s nothing really in it for me.” Arthur said breezily, “Not a very good deal.”

“Well, then you can consider it paying me back for your inconvenience.”

Arthur really hadn’t been in a good mood that day, and  _it was one thirty in the morning now_ , and he had half a mile of his shopping list to go- not to mention the fact that his last date was at least a decade ago- but it was all fine.

It was all fine because Alfred, despite the insolence, was cute; Family Game Night was not very entertaining with only two people; and seeing as he’d gotten the great big hunk of a man to ask him out, one could say Arthur Kirkland had definitely won the war.

“It’s Arthur Kirkland, that’s K-I-R-K-L-A-N-D, and my number is-”


End file.
